Question : Essay-type
Elucidate the vision of life underlying ‘A Farewell to Arms’.
Introduction
The novels of Hemingway expound a tragic view. Human life is ruled by forces over which man has little control. Often disaster is wrought by evil latent in environment or in human-self. Reality of life is suffering and death. We fall victim either to man-made evils or to destiny. The best one can view is to endure the suffering bravely and with dignity. Hemingway tells the story of such superhuman courage in ordinary human beings.
Death And Suffering In The Novel
Hemingway’s concern with death and suffering proceeds from two factors. One is war and the other is fate. He depicts the grim picture of people ruined by a senseless orgy of violence. It kills man, disrupts his life and soul. Henry and Rinaldi represent the 20th century young generation. They lose faith in everything good. With death and frustration always at their heels, they turned wild and cynical. The young soldiers indulge in shameless sensuality in the night club. This mad hedonism becomes the cult of the war-time youth. They grow insensitive to human suffering. Henry does not wince to kill the truant Sergeant. He regards courtship as a game of chess. He must calculate every move in order to possess a girl physically only. “I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had I any idea of loving her.” Henry thinks that his cynicism is natural. “I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain…..and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.” It is a pessimism born of disillusionment and decadence.
Destiny In The Novel
Henry is exploited by a tyrannical authority which tries to hide its faults by persecuting common soldiers unnecessarily. He bids farewell to his army and returns to Catherine. But he is ill-used by his destiny too. He saves himself from death dispensed by man. But he cannot save Catherine from death given by malicious gods. Love and sympathy in Catherine’s company revives Henry. He finds a new meaning in existence. The sense of loneliness and despair vanishes. But contentment is only fleeting in life. Human life is strangely hostile to the brave and honest. “It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.” Catherine has to die at child-birth. It is a disaster that one can neither justify nor evade. It is a part of the tragic game of life. It is a vain struggle for survival. Mysterious miss-chances often bring ruin. Catherine dies making everything empty for Henry. It appears that the malignity of fate is motiveless just like that of man.
The characters of Hemingway embrace the good knowing it fully well that it will not ensure happiness. Rinaldi warns Henry against falling in love with a virtuous girl. It will bring misery. He proves right. It is also truth that Rinaldi admires Henry for renouncing the mire of brothel. Rinaldi is not a rake devoid of morality. He is only a victim of his circumstances. Inwardly he is a worshipper of values though outwardly he defies all ideas. He suffers as he indulges in immoral pleasures. The priest told Henry that carnal enjoyment is not love. “When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.”
Catherine Awakens Henry’s Virtuous Feelings
Henry leads a selfish animal life being fully aware of his ugliness. Catherine teaches him to live for others. She loves Henry so deeply that she does not hesitate for anything. The lesson of love is something unique in the selfish world of violence and lust. Love awakens Henry from a spiritual inertia. His faith in the beauties of life is restored. Henry feels that one should embrace virtues and reject everything that offends one’s conscience. Catherine’s death is like a causeless bolt from the blue. It is a world where hopes are often ruined, virtues are punished.
The Last Tragic Scene
Catherine is haunted by a nightmare. It is a scene of rainfall in which someone lies death, she herself or Henry. In the last scene Henry leaves Catherine’s dead body and walks back to the hotel in rain. Separation is the final reality sooner or later. The end of the novel exposes this truth of life.
“There is no light and no peace in the world; but there is death–death for many.”
————————-
Related Questions
1️⃣ Comment on the ending of ‘A Farewell to Arms’.
2️⃣ Would you call ‘A Farewell to Arms’ a pessimistic novel? Argue your answer.
